Kiriyenko, Sergei Maksimovich (1963– )

Russian politician, prime minister March–August 1997.

Kiriyenko was the youngest, and shortest-lived, Russian prime minister to date. A banker and oil-refinery executive who rose with Boris Nemtsov, the radical governor of Nizhniy-Novgorod, he was brought to Moscow by Nemtsov when the latter was first deputy prime minister, to take up the post of deputy energy minister in 1997. But when, in March 1998, President Boris Yeltsin wanted to send a message that he was swinging his support behind another bout of radical reform, Kiriyenko was plucked from obscurity to lead the government. Impressing even sceptics with his grasp of detail before a parliament that only reluctantly confirmed him in the third round of voting, he was, however, overwhelmed by the economic storm. He could not get his emergency programme past parliament and announced, on 17 August, default on domestic and foreign debt and a devaluation of the rouble. He was fired later that month and replaced – albeit briefly – by the man he had replaced, Viktor Chernomyrdin.